


Egoist

by SweetRedWine



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Leaving Home, Nobody is gonna read this bc its not a ship and i cant tag it as one lmao, Runaway, but for now:, maybe I'll add my snowbird agenda later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24162127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetRedWine/pseuds/SweetRedWine
Summary: Winter plans her great escape from the Schnee manor, and what to do with her life after that.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Egoist

She wished that she could have stayed at the academy for the holidays. The empty Schnee halls echoed with her footsteps as she made her way to her father’s office for that day’s evaluation. She was his punching bag for now, because she was atypical for a high society woman… and refused to fit into his mould. From this day forth, she’d stand up to him. From today, she’d begin to find just exactly _who_ she was, and learn to love herself. Gone would be the days where she’d look in the mirror and abhor her face after being told nonsense about it. Her eyes were an eighth of an inch too far apart, the bridge of her nose was too strong, her jaw was too sharp. She’d forget that. She’d stop wearing glasses with fake lenses that gave the illusion that her eyes were ‘fixed’. She’d stop attempting to contour her jaw to look rounder, and her nose to be softer. She’d begin believing when people told her she was pretty. She’d love her flaws, but not her mistakes. Mistakes could be fatal.

In fact, perhaps… this was a mistake. Standing up to him. She stood to lose far more than she had to gain, Weiss, Whitley… her mother. She couldn’t abandon the poor woman, not the way that she is. Maybe Weiss and Whitley didn’t notice the road their mother was going down, but Winter was older, so she knew. Those glasses of wine with breakfast, with lunch, with afternoon tea in the garden… they added up. Wine would become whiskey, and whiskey would leave her a whisper of the woman she once was. Winter would never drink. She couldn’t risk the crutch. She wanted greatness, not… that. She turned on her heel, marching away from the office with a new speed, wanting to run as far as she could. She could run now. He wouldn’t look while he was waiting for her. Not being punctual bore punishments, and he gave them out like other parents might give out rewards. She’d only learnt that life wasn’t supposed to be like this when she had overheard people video calling their parents in her dorm. She just hoped her teammates didn’t notice that her phone calls were less than two minutes long, and she didn’t speak much, just a “yes father” here, and an “I’m sorry, father” there. Never a goodbye. Not ever a goodbye.

And now he wouldn’t get one either. She wasn’t sure where she would go, but she knew it would be somewhere. It was time to trust herself, and remember that she was Winter Schnee, preparing for greatness, intelligent, beautiful, and most of all, deadly. She lifted her chin as confidence ran through her veins, starting to sprint to her room to pack a bag. Her sword, some books, her sketchbooks, diary… Clothes. Atlas was cold, so her bag was full, zipper straining to contain her furs and boots. Even if she had to sleep under a bridge, she’d be warm. She uninstalled the tracking app on her scroll, and put it in her pocket along with a photo of her and her siblings.

The next step was actually getting out of the manor. She sat at her desk, checking the time. She had eight minutes before he’d send someone to find her. She unwrapped a brand-new notebook, opening it to the first page, scrawling a note for either the staff or her father to find. She doubted he’d ever read it, let alone take in what she had to say. But she had to say something, else she would explode. Sure, this was a cowardly way to give him what for, but the best way to save herself and her freedoms.

**To whom it may concern,**

**I have left the manor, and I shall not return. I will find a place to stay on my own, without your knowledge or your input.**

**Your warmth is fleeting and false towards me, towards all of us, and I have never been able to let go because I craved a family to love and stay with. The wounds you have left me with are not ones that time may heal.**

**The sun now sets on my time here, and the manor will forever be a forbidden zone, shrouded in darkness, and this shall allow me to follow the light towards a new home, without you.**

**I have decided to love myself, and remember that I am a Schnee by blood. You poached our family name with your avarice and I refuse to partake in your dire schemes to get richer, whilst you leave your children and wife to drown under the accusations and blame for what you have done. I refuse to be connected to you any longer. You have ultimately removed the worth and respect the name holds and commands from people. I will live on, and thrive, without you.**

**I refuse to have all I am be swallowed by you, and used to justify your deeds. Your three children, your eldest daughter… They will never be your excuses again. I will not become the you that you want me to be, and I won’t become the submissive woman you wanted as a backup when that didn’t work. You have never controlled me once. My life is on my terms, and I will break this cycle of mutual disdain and discontent now.**

**I pray that you leave me alone and allow me to live my life on my terms.**

**I will never regret who I am. The fact that I am who I am, despite the billions of chances not to have been born into this body, and be anybody else, the fact that someone as strong as I am was born to you is destiny, and for me it is a blessing. I will appreciate all I have out of my own hard work more than someone else.**

She dropped the pen suddenly. Footsteps. She had to go, and she had to have gone five minutes ago. Bag over her shoulder, she leapt from her open balcony doors, using a series of glyphs to break her fall, and several more to speed up her sprint, to get as far away as quickly as possible.

She pulled up her hood as she made her way through Atlas, finding a cashpoint to withdraw as much lien as she could to tide her over. He’d cut her off, no worries, therefore she needed it. They could find the cashpoint location though, so she needed to move quickly again. She dipped into a drugstore to pick up some hair dye, and continued to run as fast as her body could take her. Glyphs were too risky as they stood, someone could notice… Nobody in Mantle or Atlas would hesitate to sell her out to her father’s men, or Ironwood’s.

Ironwood. She could trust him, but she couldn’t head to the academy to find him. But then the longer she waited… they’d expect her to go there, it would be riddled with people waiting for her. Now was the only chance she had.

She just hoped to god that he didn’t turn her in.


End file.
